Oct
21
Classes & Workshops
Art & Impact of Archival Research with Monica Berra (PEAR)
About the Class
Archives aren’t just for historians. In this engaging, lecture-style workshop, award-winning filmmaker and producer Monica Berra reveals how archival research can enrich creative practices across disciplines. From sourcing materials to crafting narratives, you’ll learn strategies to integrate historical media and primary sources into your art, writing, film, or performance. A must for creatives curious about digging deeper into the past to tell new stories.
Instruction Style:
Lecture-Based
Skill Level:
Research-Focused
About the instructor:
Cross-Disciplinary
All Levels
Rooted in her native Miami, Florida, Monica Berra is a filmmaker drawn to the poetry of the archive, specializing in documentaries that weave the past into the present. Her work has appeared on HBO, PBS, WORLD Channel, Field of Vision, NYT Op-Docs, YouTube Originals, The Atlantic, and beyond. Most recently, she co-produced Sasha Wortzel’s feature documentary River of Grass (True/False 2025); produced John Maggio’s Paul Anka: His Way (Toronto 2024); and produced HBO’s Emmy-nominated feature A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (Tribeca 2021). Endlessly captivated by the alchemy of archival discovery, Monica believes in its power to reshape the stories we tell. She is the 2025 RiverRun Film Festival Spark Award recipient and was a 2023–2024 Impact Partners Producing Fellow. She is also a proud member of the Archival Producer Alliance, Video Consortium, and Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and holds an MFA in documentary filmmaking from Wake Forest University.
Supply List:
Bring a notebook or laptop
